"Memories from My Momma" on the 76th anniversary of her birth. Happy Birthday Momma! (September 13th)

My momma told me this story about when she was a little girl.

When she was only four or five years old, she was sitting on the glider on her front porch one day and decided she needed something to do. So she went around to the shed at the side of the house and got out the hoe. She thought she would dig up some weeds that had sprouted up around the front sidewalk and that would be a good help to her mother. As she was at her task, she innocently started singing to herself, "I'm a Hoe-er, I'm a Hoe-er, la dum, da dum, da di." My momma was so happy just a hoe-ing and singing, that she never did see the whirlwind that was my grandmother swoop down on her and beat the living tar out of her so hard that she couldn't sit down for at least a week.

My momma told me that it took her about 10 years to understand why her mother whipped her so hard for singing that song. When she did, she said she had a good laugh about it.

I can just see my momma in the front yard now, digging and singing away.

Happy Birthday to you Momma. I know you are in heaven singing and a-gardening with your hoe.